The Veda is the massive holy book of Hinduism. It has existed from before the beginning of time. It was carefully preserved by Brahma, the creator god, during the dissolution of the last universe, and then given to humanity once again when the world Hindus do not believe the Veda was written by a group of authors. Rather, the great sages of antiquity "heard" the verses of the Veda in deep states of meditation (today we might say they "channeled" them) and passed them along to other brahmins, the priests who have been the custodians of the Veda from the immemorial.
Other authorities, such as the great Yogi Patanjali, had a slightly different perspective Patanjali said it was not the words of the Veda that were eternal but the wisdom contained in them.
Either way, because the Veda was so holy, it was imperative that it be preserved exactly as it was first given out by the original sages. Therefore, to this day brahmin priests memorize the Veda backward and forward, then backward and forward again but this time skipping every other word, and then backward and forward in various other combinations.
They also used other memorization techniques, such as chanting the Veda to particular rhythms and moving their hands according to prescribed rules as the rhythm changed. Brahmins from different Villages would meet regularly to check each others' mastery of the text. These methods helped to ensure that when we hear the verses being chanted today, they are almost certainly still being pronounced exactly like they were thousands of years ago, with not one word or even one syllable lost due to passage of time.
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